Looking at the Random Cypher "generator" on my mobile device, I think there's something broken. At the very least, there is nearly no data loaded into the database.

When I ask for 5 cyphers from "any" of the Cypher System or The Strange, 10 out of 10 attempts included an Aglow, an Allopoiesis, a Biological Plait, a Catholicon, and a Curative. These same five cyphers appear in random order, but IT WAS THE SAME CYPHERS every time!
In addition, requesting MORE THAN 5 cyphers (for example, 10) resulted in these same five cyphers. Requesting less than 5 yielded selections from these 5, alone, and never anything else. Changing tactics, and using the books as filters (rather than system), gave me different results... but, again, samples were from the same small subset, every time.

So, when using System as a filter, and requesting 10 "random cyphers",
If Cypher System is the filter, the same 5 Cypher System cyphers are selected, every time: Aglow, Allopoiesis, Biological Plait, Catholicon, and Curative.
If Numenera is the filter, the same 5 Numenera cyphers are selected: Adhesion Clamps, Antivenom, Attractor, Banishing Nodule, and Blinking Nodule.
If The Strange is the filter, no cyphers are selected.

I checked out the character generators on your new website. And my biggest problem with cypher systems is still very apparent in this generator. You pride yourself on being a simple system. But the hardest part is picking all your abilities and things. That's where a cypher campaign has always ground to a halt for me as players have trouble figuring out what to get and why. A more streamlined character creation system would go a long way towards improving my ability to help new players who are confused by the system.

Oops, actually I just confused the wallpaper emails with the "Into the Ninth World" Kickstarter campaign. I thick I never got any emails With wallpaper links for this campaign. I should have, though, at the "Lover of All Books" level, right?

Superbacker

@Stefan, the Predation and Gods of the Fall digital wallpapers were produced and emailed out through a Dropbox link, but the Unmasked Digital Wallpapers are still coming, so I'll try to make sure the link we send out has links to all six as we fulfill the last of them.

And the Cypher System Quickstarter Rules PDF is still in production :-)

Superbacker

Hi folks!
I'm so sorry for your wait, I was trying to get answers to all your questions in one batch but now I've made you feel abandoned - I apologize.

@Jerry & @Martin, I see your messages in our customer service system and will look at them now!

@Eric, I don't see a message in our system from you, did you send a message through our Contact Us form? If you haven't, would you mind doing that so I can get the details and help you out? https://www.montecookgames.com/contact-us/

Thanks for your patience, folks, we'll get you all sorted.
Best,
Darcy

Wow, I've never been completely stonewalled by this company. I understood that my order, which was placed the day before Thanksgiving, wouldn't be fulfilled immediately. But to get zero response (other than the automated one), more than a week after posting an issue to Customer Service? That's not the kind of support I've come to expect from MCG. This is more like one of those OTHER Kickstarter campaigns.

@MCG (Darcy, Sean, or whomever else reads these):
There's a problem with my order for Unmasked (print, PDF, and conversion glimmer). I sent an inquiry to support@ last week (30 Nov), and was told (by an automated process it seems) that my issue would "be addressed soon". So far, however, I've heard nothing. Any chance one of you could take a look and let me know what's going on?
Thanks!

I asked the author of Unmasked on Twitter why he changed the setting, and her replied:

„Hey! As I wrote it, it kept pulling me back to the "origin story" of the DMD; the book became that origin story. I imagine the "modern" world of UNMASKED would feature DMD. This is where that "comes from". Hope that helps!“

I do think MCG owes us an explanation of why Unmasked changed from it's original concept. Unlike the other MCG kickstarters, this one gave very little previews of the various products and projects.

If there's a change in a product before release, that should be disclosed fully to the backers, because your asking for money up front to develop a product, and the descriptions given set the expectations of the audience. With this particular KS in general, some people may have only been interested in 1 or 2 of the 3 products (I know I didn't care about the Predation one at all), so that increases risk. I mean, a simple statement with this Kickstarter saying "in playtest, people didn't like the setting, so we changed it", etc. Otherwise, it feels like the textbook definition of "bait and switch".

After finally ordering my Unmasked copy, I've been checking out what might still be missing from this campaign, so I'm wondering: have the digital wallpapers ever been released, and if so, how can I get them? And what about thew Quickstart Rules PDF?

I received my copy of Unmasked last week and have had a chance to look it over and I find myself disappointed by the finished product. The description originally shared during the Kickstarter made it sound a lot more akin to a 90s style RPG ala World of Darkness or Underground with psychological elements at play whereas what we got feels more like someone trying to knock off Stranger Things with all the 80s nostalgia. All the other books we funded were to my liking but this one has left something of a bad taste in my mouth unfortunately. I don't know, perhaps more communication during the creative process would have helped.

@John I had the same impression after flipping through the book: Different setting, different tone, etc.

Ultimately I think they just changed and expanded the setting to include multiple play styles - and to get on board of the 80s hype train ;-). There are a lot of examples in the book to give the game a darker or more serious twist. You could easily adapt the original idea for Unmasked (from the quote you posted) without changing too much. I would have liked to see this background fleshed out in the book, too. The focus on dark, psychological horror sounded cool!

After downloading and reviewing unmasked, it doesn't seem like what we originally backed:

Or drift to the edge of insanity. They'll say you're dangerous. Insane. That you suffer from Dissociative Mask Disorder. Your parents and the doctors and the press and the military—they can’t believe what’s happening. They can’t believe what you can do. And they wouldn't believe the price you pay.

Unmasked is 192 pages of super-powered psychological horror. Like the other campaign settings funded by this campaign, it’ll have setting info, new character options, creatures, cyphers, and everything you need to run a complete campaign.

Instead, the game we got appears to be an 80's pastiche/homage, with nothing of the original concept advertised. I've reviewed the updates here and I see no announcement of the change in tone from the original campaign.

Superbacker

Hi Antonino!
Unmasked itself is only up on the store for taking pre-orders of the product, it's not out yet but you backers will absolutely be getting it first.
We can't wait to get it into your hands! Glad you enjoyed Day One.
- Darcy

Hi MCG!
I have seen that Unmasked us available on the store. Shouldn't we backers have received out copies? At least the PDFs?
There was nothing on my Coupons area besides the Day One (that was awesome, I need more!).
Thanks in advance for answering,
Antonino Bossolan

Superbacker

I’ve received no emails since the release of the asset decks and now have no access to the website using the email I signed up using. Who can I talk to fix this and get the remainder of what I backed for at the “Ultimate Cypher GM” level?

@Jerry Bocci we're still planning on releasing Unmasked in November. We're going to see what impact our schedule has on the Cypher System Creature Deck's street date. If that changes, we'll update the Coming Soon page.

Superbacker

Hi MCG team, I've put a couple of messages through via the 'Contact us' page but I'm not sure if they've gone through properly (received email autoreply, but on both occasions the web page froze when I hit 'submit'). Just chasing the status of an order for these Kickstarter rewards made on Aug 4 if you can help.

Just got our copy of Myth of the Maker, are the long outer edges of the pages supposed to be rough cut? The top and bottom are smooth cut, but the outer are rough, seems like the book wasn't finished being cut when the jacket was put on.

Hello, Predation backers! Tammie sent out an email to you with a link to download the official pregenerated characters and pregenerated companions for Predation. These emails should be rolling out over the next several hours. Please check your email (the address you use for MCG Kickstarter updates) for the link. If it doesn't arrive by tomorrow, let us know and we'll track it down. :)

Hi Sean! I confirm that the printed copy of Predation tha tyou send me to the correct address arrived this morning. You forgotten to put inside the copy of the poster/map of predation, but at least I can print it myself from my pdf version of its.